


They Don't Know About Us

by cat_77



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (TV), WandaVision (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Spoilers for WandaVision
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-26 09:01:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30103536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cat_77/pseuds/cat_77
Summary: Sam tags along to figure out why Bucky is so worked up about something that happened in a small town in the middle of nowhere New Jersey.  He gets a little more than he bargained for.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Darcy Lewis
Comments: 40
Kudos: 356





	They Don't Know About Us

It was easy enough to locate Westview, as soon as it showed up on the maps again that is. The sheer presence of the FBI, SWORD, and other various entities also helped to make it stand out to say the least. He found armored trucks, uniformed agents, and a lot of confused people wandering around when he made his way into the city proper. Unfortunately, the one person in particular he was looking for was nowhere in sight.

A woman who actually looked competent was led away by what he was certain was an agent of a different type, leaving a man with a coat that denoted him as FBI shooting off orders left and right. He raised an eyebrow at the fact that some of those orders were to take supposed SWORD agents into custody but, then again, given what happened to SHIELD itself not that long ago, he knew he shouldn’t be that surprised.

The crowd around the man cleared, possibly due to his own presence, and he found himself with the definition of unimposing. The oddly cheerful man looked up to him and said, “Oh, hey, you’re the Winter, er, I mean, Sergeant Barnes, how can I help you?”

He knew pleasantries were expected, likely required even, but he found the only words that came out were a demand of, “Where is she?”

Behind him, he could practically hear Sam’s eye roll and definitely could hear the impatient huff before the other man muttered, “Hi, hello, how are you? We’re totally humans and not cyborgs with no social graces…”

He ignored him with long practice and instead focused on the way the agent before him frowned and admitted, “Wanda? We let her go. More accurately, Agent Rambeau let her go. With it unclear where SWORD’s loyalties lie at the moment and SHIELD not quite forthcoming when we asked for assistance or even proof that they still existed, not to mention she’s incredibly powerful and just sort of left on her own? I’m sorry, but you are too late to intervene.”

Now it was Bucky’s turn to frown. With that description, there was only one person the agent could be talking about. “Wanda? Maximoff? As in super powerful, super traumatized, and incredibly young? No, I would never even… I mean, Barton was the only one who really ever took the time and connected, but… No. Not after her. Darcy, er, Lewis? Have you seen Darcy Lewis?”

What followed was the agent, whose nametag denoted him as Agent Woo, gushing about the indominable Doctor Lewis. How she was responsible for everything from discovering what had been going on inside Westview to discovering what some supposed wannabe director had planned for a known ally. He segued to how Doctor Lewis had perhaps angered said wannabe director, but assumed that Bucky and Sam’s presence meant her record was about to be wiped spotlessly clean.

“That’s good, but where is she?” he tried again.

Agent Woo paused and blinked and seemed to come back to himself before he replied, “She said ‘debriefs are for losers’ or something similar and headed out. I did not catch where or even how.”

“Damn it, Darcy,” he muttered under his breath. He nodded in thanks and let Woo gush over Wilson for a bit while he tried to figure out just where she could have gone.

He started a systematic search of the area. A rather destroyed area, really. The high ground would be best for the review but he found agents cordoning off even rooftops and billboards and scanning them with all sorts of sensors. Given he knew for a fact that Wanda could launch herself skyward and essentially fly, that was not nearly as startling as it could be.

The patter of combat boots behind him made him turn around expectantly as much as Sam’s own voice. “A girl? You dragged us all the way out here for a girl?” the other man teased.

“Not just a girl,” he ground out as he resumed his search.

“Okay, fine, a Doctor-Girl,” Sam amended easily enough. “Apparently a smart one if that guy’s damn near heart eyes are any sign. Who is she, both to you and to the world in general?”

“Doctor Darcy Lewis was Doctor Jane Foster’s assistant before she became an astrophysicist herself. As in Thor’s Jane Foster before the doc called it off with him. She knows about SHIELD, she knows about SWORD, and she knows a lot about things most people shouldn’t,” Bucky rattled off. He spotted a dark-haired woman with a knit cap two blocks over, but the shape was not right and the hair was too short.

Sam had apparently taken the opportunity to pull out his phone and look her up for himself. He whistled low and said, “Also, a looker. You forgot to add that part. Kind of like you forgot to answer the question about who she is to you.”

Bucky stopped in the middle of the road, Sam easily avoiding running into him from long practice. They were far enough away from others and he didn’t spot any parabolic mics, so it should be relatively safe. Still, he kept his voice low when he replied, “Wife.” The look on Sam’s face was almost worth it, which is why he partially regretted it when he amended his reply to, “Well, fiancé. Here at least. We’re not sure if the Wakandan ceremony will be seen as legal in the US.”

“And you’re just telling me this now?” Sam exclaimed.

“She got called in to deal with this mess and we got called in to deal with ours,” Bucky shrugged as if it were nothing. As if he hadn’t been checking the secure link between them several times a day for nearly a week now.

Sam swiped a hand over his face. “And she’s just going to what? Save the day here while you save the day elsewhere and then you two meet up for some pot roast?”

Bucky shook his head. “Darcy is a horrible cook. Breads, cookies, yeah, but anything not seventy-five percent sugar? Not so much.”

That just made Sam roll his eyes again. “You know what I meant,” he huffed. There was a whir as he keyed up his little flying robot menace. “Any idea where she could be? We can cover more ground apart, but if you think we should stick together you know I’ve got you.”

Bucky spared a moment for the image of Sam attempting to approach Darcy on his own and quietly wondered just how horribly that would go. “We’ll start at the base camp as she’s clearly not here. If she just went to collect her things before truly heading out, she’d probably head there first,” he replied eventually.

The menace took off in that direction and, at his questioning look, Sam explained, “They were arresting SWORD agents back there and that’s a SWORD camp. If any of the bad guys are still hiding out there, better to get an eye on them sooner rather than later.”

He couldn’t argue with that logic, so he let Sam keep an eye on the readouts and even slowed slightly so the other man could keep up with him as they approached the camp. They found more agents, a lot of medics, and a fair deal of chaos. They also found two men crumpled outside of one of the personal temporary residences, one still twitching.

Wilson went on alert, but Bucky let a slow grin settle over his face as he reached out and knocked on the door to the little not-quite-tent. “Oh, you’re trying for polite now? I still have a taser, you assholes,” came the dulcet tones he knew so well.

“Wilson’s not that obnoxious yet, but you might want to keep in it reserve,” Bucky called through the polymer closing.

There was a crash on the other side, followed by a demand of, “Prove who you are, or I swear to Thor I will take you out.”

“Darce, it’s me,” he promised. “Mr. James Buchanan Barnes, the lucky grunt bonded to one of the most beautiful and brilliant scientists out there.”

The snick of the lock being slid out of place was followed by the hesitant crack of the door. Gorgeous blue eyes peered out for just a second from behind a sturdy yet clearly improvised chain. He stayed back and waited despite every instinct screaming at him to rush forward and sweep her into his arms. Proactive as always, he saw that the face of her Mickey Mouse watch was flipped up to reveal the mechanics beneath it and that the scan was already in progress. The faint red glow flipped to green and she bodily launched herself forward as soon as the chain was removed.

He caught her easily enough and buried his face in her hair while she wrapped both arms and legs around him. “The damned energy signatures from the Hex screw with everything, I can only get close range and direct, no blocking with this high-tech Ikea wannabe stuff,” she muttered as she gripped on tight. 

“That’s fine, baby doll. Better safe than sorry,” he agreed with a press of his lips to her temple. She felt so good in his arms. Warm and safe and whole.

There was the sound of a scuffle behind him and he turned to find Sam knocking some uniformed idiot on her ass. Darcy detached herself from him and lunged forward, and it was only his quick reflexes that stopped Wilson from getting tased. “Who the hell is he?” she demanded, arm still extended and at the ready.

“Good guy who just took out a bad guy,” Sam insisted, hands raised. “And you two are adorable. Insanely violent, but adorable.”

Bucky didn’t see his point. Just because Darcy had her weapon of choice at the ready and he had a knife in his hand and she had wound herself around him in a well-practiced move to allow him to cover them both while she caught any strays was not cute in the least. At all.

“Sam Wilson, meet Darcy Lewis,” Bucky introduced them, reluctantly sheathing the blade.

Sam offered out a hand, the other one still up to show he was not immediately armed. “A pleasure to meet you, Doctor Lewis. An Agent Woo sang your praises. Which was the first I heard of you because this idiot decided to keep you secret.”

Darcy shifted the taser to her left hand and shook with her right. “It’s safer, for both of us. At least until we can make sure no one else is after him. Or me, really.” She scrunched up her face and turned to face Bucky apologetically when she admitted, “I might have ticked some people off.”

“Were they bad guys?”

She shrugged easily enough and adjusted her glasses. “Bad guys, bad girls, bad seeds infiltrating yet another organization that had a good premise gone wrong,” she allowed.

“Wanna tell me about it over dinner?” he offered.

She winced. “Dinner might have to wait until I’m cleared medically.”

He looked her over frantically and resisted the urge to bodily pat her down to look for injuries. “Doll? Are you okay? What happened?” he demanded.

“A few scrapes from fighting off Acting Director Dick’s Douche Squad, nothing serious there,” she promised. He knew her well enough to know when she was omitting something, so he waited her out until she added, “But I passed through the Hex at least once, possibly thrice since she tried to take it down and then put it back up again.”

“Hex?” Sam prompted in case she was more forthcoming about the descriptor than before. 

“High energy field that Wanda put around the town that we kind of proved with Monica rewrites you at a molecular level if you’re exposed too much. Also, everything was shaped like a ton of hexagons, thus, the Hex,” she explained. She held up her hand and immediately protested, “And do not put that on that poor traumatized woman. From what Vision was telling me, she was trying her best. Girl protected Monica even when she was pissed at her. I kind of hacked into the rapidly growing medical files when I got back and it seems like no one else really had any horrible side effects yet, so I should be fine but…”

“But what, doll?” Bucky prodded. If she was hurt, if she was in pain, he didn’t know what he would do. No, that wasn’t true. He would try to find someplace safe, someplace trusted, to have her treated as soon as possible, even if she kicked and screamed the entire way there. And then he would personally make the SWORD agents responsible for her safety regret their failure.

“But I’m going to need like a pint of Chunky Monkey and maybe something 80 proof and I’m not going into details when there’s another handful of creeps trying to listen in,” she said shrewdly.

He had heard additional footsteps approaching, but trusted Sam to keep an eye on them and not just because his little toy still hovered above them. “Grab what you need and let’s get out of here?” he suggested. He was pleased to note she already had a bag packed when she darted into her quarters to grab that and what appeared to be a severely reinforced laptop.

“Are you stealing government property?” Sam asked in exasperation. He notably did not try to stop her.

“It has the evidence against Acting Director Dick on it, plus stuff to at least partially exonerate Wanda,” Darcy explained. “Like, I get they will probably still want her to fess up to some of the other stuff she did, but she did not break the Accords, not for Vision,” she insisted.

Bucky slung her pack over his shoulder and let her carry the laptop for now. He knew her well enough to know she had moved the evidence to a secure drive probably hidden somewhere safe by now, but if she wanted the laptop, she was getting the laptop. “Let’s get you home, doll.”

Sam followed them easily enough, and the three of them did their best to look as casual as possible even though at least two of them were ready to defend themselves at a moment’s notice. Only one person dared to try to stop them, and both men smiled when Darcy swiped the keys to a truck from the suddenly unconscious body. Seated and belted and with Darcy at the wheel to let Bucky and Sam provide defenses if required, Sam finally asked, “And where is home, anyway?”

“I figure Pepper is the safest?” Darcy suggested, and Bucky saw no fault in that.

“Potts?” Sam confirmed with both eyebrows raised high.

Darcy nodded and focused on avoiding the stream of emergency vehicles still headed into the little town. “She’s my boss. True boss. Kind of. She paid for like my entire doctorate and gave me a job and lets me decide if I want to do anything with SHIELD or SWORD or whatever battle-ready acronym they come up with next.”

Sam slapped Bucky on the shoulder and it took everything he had not to slap back. Hard. “You said she knew Foster and Thor, not the Starks!” he accused.

Darcy smiled, bright and true. “I miss Thor. I tased him and he was like, ‘worthy friend’ versus ‘die now’ when he got his powers back.” She paused as she maneuvered back onto the main road, the base camp rapidly fading behind them. “Pepper… She’s not like a friend you go out for bad tacos with or anything, but she’s definitely an ally and a good person. I trust her with this data and I trust her with whatever might have happened to me. She figured out Extremis, so she should be able to figure out the Hex.”

“Between Stark Industries and the Wakandans, they’re the primary reasons why half the world hasn’t gone after the remaining Avengers,” Bucky agreed. Potts had set up a place for them, off the beaten path, if needed. Not that they had a chance to really do anything with it yet. Darcy pretty much lived at the tower as a supposed scientist for hire, and Bucky himself stopped in when he needed a break. The fact absolutely none of the public, or the world’s various military organizations, knew about that or about the connection between the two vastly different people, was a tribute to her silence. 

Bucky knew it was a lot for Sam to take in. He also knew Wilson would not only keep it quiet, but fight to do so if needed. As much as they liked to give each other crap, he was a good guy, a loyal guy, and someone who would do his best to protect others. It was odd to share this side of himself, and there were very few he would have been willing to do so with, to say the least.

“I’ve got a question,” Sam blurted after about ten miles of fields and trees. Bucky was surprised it took him that long, but it was Darcy who motioned for him to continue. “You keep talking about this Hex thing, and what it did to you. Just what do you think happened?”

Darcy did not immediately answer. Instead, she pulled off onto the rocky shoulder of the road and put the truck into park. She snapped her fingers and demanded, “Give me one of your knives?” He offered out his usual and she shook her head. “No, that’s like your favorite. One you don’t like as much.” He slid that one away and grabbed one from the tac vest that had been left on the seat when they first stole the truck.

She held it in her hand for a moment as is testing the weight of it. When she reached up with her other hand, he feared she was going to cut herself. It didn’t matter if she bled green as far as he was concerned, she should never be injured enough to bleed at all if he had a say. She didn’t slice her palm or even her finger. She simply folded the blade in half. With her hands.

“When I got dragged into Wanda’s world of make believe, I was in cuffs. I had also just tried to protect Vision. I think that, at some level, Wanda knew I was not a bad guy because of that. I think she tried to make sure I would be safe, just like she tried to make sure Monica survived getting kicked out of Westview.” She sighed and ran a hand through her hair, knife now safely in a cupholder. “Inside the Hex, she made me a Strong Woman, like one of the circus acts. It made sense since she made all the idiot agents into clowns. I was able to break free there and, well, the extra oomph hasn’t gone away yet.”

“You think it’s permanent?” Sam guessed. He picked up the knife and toyed with it as he tried to bend the blade back into place to no avail.

“I think I managed to ram the equivalent of an ice cream truck into Acting Director Dick’s decked out ride without a scratch and I think Monica’s glowy eyes and ability to phase bullets through herself might possibly hint that this stuff is here to stay,” she admitted.

Bucky reached across and pulled her close to kiss first her temple, and then her bright red painted lips. “We’ll figure it out,” he promised.

There was the barest twinkle in her eyes when she nodded and solemnly said, “We better, for the sake of the baby.”

“Baby!?!” Sam exclaimed in a pitch he would deny he was capable of producing later. 

Bucky let Wilson go into a full freak out, ranting, raving, listing the need to get her to a secure medical facility sooner rather than later, and more. There were flailing hands and everything. He tilted his forehead against her own and grinned, “You are such a brat.”

Her smile shone brighter than the sun in the late afternoon sky when she snorted, “Did you see his face? So worth it.”


End file.
